This young couple now have a second daughter - Haya. A Johns Hopkins graduate, he is working at the World Bank in Washington. An admirable young man, but any special reason for posting his picture today ?

Prince Raad bin Zeid is the only son of Prince Zeid bin Hussein. Prince Zeid was the youngest brother of the Kings Feisal I of Iraq and Abdullah I of Jordan, who were all the sons of the Sherif Hussein of Mecca. Prince Raad's mother was Turkish, as was Prince Zeid's mother. Prince Zeid was the Ambassador of Hashemite Kingdom of Iraq in Germany, where Prince Raad was born, and then in the United Kingdom until the revolution in Iraq in 1958. He subsequently lived and eventually died in Paris.

The common descent of these branches of the Hashemite Dynasty is from Sharif Hussein bin Ali (1853-1931), Emir of Mecca. He was the last of the Hashemite Sharifs who ruled over Mecca, and is historically significant for launching the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Army in 1916 (see also Lawrence of Arabia).

Prince Raad is a distant cousin and is in the tree as Firas (he is sometimes referred to as Prince Firas bin Raad, as Raad is his father's name) and can be found in the green central section. The lack of dates of birth on the Family Tree makes it harder to work out who is who.

Prince Firas bin Raad is currently a Fulbright scholar at Harvard University in the DPH Program in international health policy and economics. In 1997 His Royal Highness was awarded an MPH in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health and was a Middle East Fellow at Kennedy School of Government. His Royal Highness holds an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Washington DC with a concentration Middle Eastern studies and international economics.

Since 1997, His Royal Highness has been the Private Secretary to His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan for Health Affairs.

His Royal Highness Prince Firas Raad and Her Royal Highness Princess Dana Firas of Jordan were honored at a dinner given by the United Cerebral Palsy Research and Educational Foundation at the Graham Arader Gallery on Madison Avenue and 72nd Street.The purpose of the dinner was to announce the Middle East Research Collaboration in which the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian medical communities are collaborating to identify effective therapy for those with Cerebral Palsy. The Collaboration (MERC) will study cerebral palsy therapy at three sites including Assaf Hartofeh in Israel, Princes Masma Center in East Jerusalem and Al-Hussein Society in Jordan. UCP Research and Educational Facility provides expert oversight to the initial grant of $500,000 from USAID which initiated the collaboration. The monies were directed to Ben Gurion University in Israel with the directive to conduct a three site clinical study of specific therapy interventions in Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian children.

__________________His Majesty King Hussein Bin Talal was my role model all my life, loved him so much, may God bless his soul, and paradise will be his final destinationHis soul was too great to be contained by the camera's lens ,yet his images radiate his love for his family , his faith , his pride on his country and people the world over who shared his commitment to peace and his joy in life . Queen Noor

__________________“God has given me many blessings. But the greatest of all is to be husband to Rania and father to our children Hussein, Iman, Salma and Hashem. They are the lights of my life”.HM King Abdullah II